13th Parallel: Ch. 1
“How did I get here? I don’t…remember, weird.”
Magnus, with his curiosity piqued, looks at the building before him. Uncertain how he arrived at his old school building, something seems a bit different, foggy. Instead of worrying about the missing details, Magnus heads into the school.
“I’ve got to be here for a reason;”, he assumes, “…but why is everything so blurry?”
Entering the distorted building, Magnus makes his way through the halls, confused, uncertain, but untroubled. He checks his surroundings, examining the details.
The walls are white on top, with green and blue speckled wallpaper on the bottom half. Between the two textures is a tan trim and handrail stretched end-to-end of the wall. On the upper white half are a few square framed pictures, but he can’t quite make out the images. The hallway resembles water, as if the building is made of waves. The floor is shifting under his feet, yet he feels grounded and stable as he walks.
“This isn’t normal, is it? Is this place usually like this?” The uncertain thoughts start creeping in. “What...is that feeling? It’s coming from the gym.”
Magnus turns to the entrance of the gym at the end of the hallway, and the double doors shut. He pushes them open, revealing a dimly lit gymnasium that is empty. “Where is everyone?” He wonders, making his way to the center of the gym.
“Is…is this a dream?” His excitement subtly rises, however, once he realizes the dream he’s in, a flash of golden-white light fills the darkened room.
The light slowly fades, leaving Magnus looking at a giant red and gold figure. “Is that... a lion?”, he silently observes.
This figure, massive in comparison to Magnus, barely fitting inside the limits of the gym, felt…powerful and at the same time safe. It wore metallic red and gold armor, the style mirroring the robotic mech suits from the games he used to play. Yet it held the feelings of a knight, honored, with the lion’s mane flowing.
The lion speaks to Magnus through a silent feeling; “So you notice, do you? That this is a dream, but this is not like your usual dreams, is it? No, you are here for a reason.”
Magnus listens quietly, yet aware, feeling from within what the lion is saying. The lion continues.
“There are dangers ahead; the light and darkness...it is up to you to keep these forces in balance. That is your purpose. That is why you are here.”
Beginning to lose consciousness, Magnus falls backward, but he doesn’t hit the floor; he falls through it and starts to feel weightless. Opening his eyes, he sees misty fog, blended colors of purple, blue, and green, like drifting through spacey clouds. There is a second creature in his view.
Flying through the space in front of Magnus, a white and blue dragon, sleek and long in length, like ancient dragons are depicted. Its scales are pearl white, its gliding hair is sapphire blue. This dragon wore similar armor to that of the lion, but the colors matched the dragon's scales and hair, which were white and blue. It doesn’t speak, but flies toward Magnus in a serpent-like form, waking Magnus as it passes through him.
Jolting awake and without delay, Magnus threw the covers off himself, quickly slid onto the stool of the writing desk next to his bed, and began jotting the dream's details on a piece of paper.
“What…was that? It felt so real, but it was a dream…wasn’t it?”, he questions internally.
Starting to feel disoriented, Magnus takes a moment to compose himself, tucking the paper into the desk's pocket shelf. Taking a calming breath, he makes his way downstairs to grab some water to start the day and watch some morning TV. When he turned on the TV, his body stilled at what he saw.
“No way…is that..” Calm and alert, Magnus watches.
On the TV is a commercial for a new video game he’s fond of, but what shocked him is something he couldn't explain and doesn't understand.
“That’s the lion and dragon…”, he quickly sifts through what he remembers, his recent memories of other times he’s watched TV, to see if he’s ever seen this commercial before.
The commercial continues, showing two versions of the same game: the lion represents the sun/light version, and the dragon represents the night/dark version.
“But, this is the first time I’ve seen this commercial, let alone heard of a new game. Still, there they are, wearing the same armor as the dream; same colors too, day and night, dark and light. How could I have a dream of something before I’ve seen it? This doesn’t make any sense”.